Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a fairly common medical condition affecting a significant number of adults. The treatment options are many and varied with no therapeutic option being the gold standard and most being basically unsatisfactory.
However gut directed hypnotherapy has been shown to be very effective in reducing the unpleasant symptoms of IBS which, of course leads to a clear improvement in patients quality of life.
This paper was a follow-up of 200 patients who has received gut related hypnosis at the hypnotherapy unit based at Withington hospital in Manchester. The patients filled in a questionnaire asking about their current situation. They asked the patients to score their symptoms, quality of life, anxiety and depression just after the course of hypnotherapy and the present day, which for some was 6 years.
The gut directed hypnotherapy used was given in an hourly session each week for up to 12 weeks. Induction and deepening was achieved. The hypnosis was then tailored to the individual with relevant individual suggestions for “ego strengthening”. In addition there were other more generalised suggestions such as hands on abdomen producing warmth and visualisation of the guts working in a normal fashion.
Just under 3/4 of the patients gained immediate relief from the hypnotic sessions. Around 4 in 5 of them carried on with the reduction in symptoms and improvement in quality of life. The remaining 1 in 5 reported only a slight deterioration in symptoms. Both quality of life and anxiety and/or depression scores were still improved but had slightly decreased. Symptoms were still much improved more than 5 years after treatment. The conclusion reached was that this demonstrates the effectiveness of hypnosis in IBS.
This is an important study as the statistical analysis is very clear. With p<0.001 for most aspects it is clear, scientifically accurate evidence of the benefit of hypnosis in relieving the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome and associated quality of life and anxiety issues. It sets the gold standard for reasearch into hypnosis and if hypnotherapy is to become more widely accepted the studies must be structured like this.Simply publishing case studies in not enough.
from UK Hypnotherapy Directory
http://www.ukhypnotherapydirectory.com/the-long-term-benefits-of-hypnotherapy-for-irritable-bowel-syndrome/
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